Camping at the Shelte Water Lake near Kohoj Fort in Maharashtra.

Monday, July 10, 2017

Shelte Water Lake is located at Shelte Village, which is located near Vaghote village. Vaghote village is the landmark. Vaghote village is located very close to the Manor Wada road. By train the closest railway station is Palghar. From there one can either board a ST bus or a chartered rickshaw or switch tum tum at Tain village to get here. The closest fort is Kohoj. 

View from Shelte Water Lake near Kohoj Fort in Maharashtra

 I had traveled by the side of Shelte Water Lake thrice, as it took me three attempts to conquer Kohoj fort. This is my first camping trip, hoping everything goes well is all that was in my head.

This trip was planned with office colleagues and finally on the D day it was just Hansel and me who ventured on this trip. Remember Hansel, he had accompanied me to Aswali Dam and Shiv Kalin Vihir in Badlapur.

Shelte Water Lake near Kohoj Fort in Maharashtra

We met at 1 PM at Amboli near my place, then filled petrol and then off we went via the western express Highway to Manor. The directions to Vaghote village are tagged on google maps. It is around 90 km away. i.e around 2 hours to reach.

Kohoj Fort in the backdrop

As it was the month of May, it was hot. Though we were travelling on the bike the sun still managed to burn the skin off my hand as it was not covered. I should have taken Hansel's advise and worn a long sleeve shirt.

Road leading to Kohoj Fort from Shelte Water lake

We crossed the Versova bridge aka Vasai bridge without any traffic. Which was good. The roads were clear and hence we picked up on speed to reach destination. We took just one pit stop and finally we were at the base village of Vaghote. We got off the Manor Wada road and asked the locals for directions as a lot of changes have been geographically made to the land. Google Maps was of not much help now as these were village roads and the all looked the same.

That's Hansel and Me

Finally after asking a couple of locals for directions we were finally at the Shelte Water Lake. The locals call it the "Bhandara."

The time was now 3:30 PM on my watch. It was hot as hell here. We parked the bike in the shade of a tree and sat there to kill time. Thanks to the tree we were greeted with the winds at regular intervals.

That's the tent and the bike

Many kids from the villages nearby were in the water, either bathing or cooling themselves from the summer heat. The women folk were busy washing clothes in the lake water. This water is surely not fit for consumption purposes.

Hansel setup to explore the lake surroundings in search of dry twigs so that we can have a bonfire post sundown. He managed to accumulate a lot of twigs, I had carried newspapers for easy combustion and we were lucky to get a matchstick box filled with matchstick right at the place where we had parked his bike.

Sun is setting

The weather was playing games with us, suddenly there was cool breeze blowing and suddenly there was no breeze as at all.

As this was my first camping trip, I had carried powerbank, USB LED light, mosquito repellent, along with food and plenty of water,  we didn't carry any liquor as we were on a camping trip. Hansel pitched the tent,  though one of the rods gave in, we still managed to make use of the bike to provide support to our tent.

Another pic of Hansel and Me

Hansel lighted the bon fire. It was a pleasant evening, we talked and talked and finally we were bored talking so we decided to eat supper. Supper comprised of mashed potatoes, boiled chicken with coriander and tomatoes. I agree the food was bland but it was high in carbohydrates and protein. Felt super energized. LOL.

There were a bunch of locals, who too had come to the lake side to have a small party. They asked us if we were carrying liquor and if we could share the same with them. We informed them that we were not carrying liquor, but they could join us for supper as we had food in plenty.

Waters of Shelte Lake

The locals had got with them a float (truck tube) and a fishing net, one of them sat on the float and setup the fishing net  in the lake. They too had lit a bonfire. We could see three more bonfires lit around the lake premises. Interesting , not sure if they were locals or campers.

The locals who were having a party, managed to catch some fish, cook it in a chatty and had their full and finally called it a night at around 10:30 PM.

Bonfire

I too called it a night, the tent could accommodate two people, had we parked the bags outside the tent. But as we had the bags inside only one person could sleep in it.

Hansel had made up his mind that he would stay awake all night long. What and Why were the questions popping up in my head. But that's what he wanted to do. Not sure as there was nothing to do in the dead of the night. I handed him over my phones so that he could keep himself occupied by surfing the internet or watching movies that were already on the phone. Both Vodafone and Reliance Jio had strong signals here, sadly the breeze was playing up, which made sleeping a difficult task for me. Not sure if I was suffering from Sleep Wake Disorder. But I didn't manage to get deep sleep. See the photos clicked by Hansel, I am sleeping, half my body is outside the tent.

Dinner : Mashed Potato and Boiled Chicken

We woke up, or should I say I woke up around 5:45 AM. It was dawn then. Hansel managed to get some good snaps of the surrounding till then.

Dawn

As it was pleasant in the morning, we decided to go for a walk around the lake premises. We didn't cover the entire lake premises, but just a small part of it. The sound of the birds chirping on the trees was music to our ears. I was so happy to hear that sound. It was much better than the sound of the alarm which wakes me up, everyday.

That's Me

We saw a fisherman, who had come early, he headed to the waters, not sure if he was trying to put the net or trying to remove the net. Hoping that he gets a good catch.

Dawn

We then freshened up, and decided to head back to Amboli. We left around 7:45 AM to reach Amboli at 9:00 AM. As there was hardly any traffic on the road, and the weather was all gloomy we managed to speed up on the highway.

Kohoj Fort and Shelte Water Lake

We managed to cover the entire trip in Rs.600 for two. Impressive na.

Aswali Dam in Aswali near Bordi near the Maharashtra Gujarat Border (India)

Monday, February 13, 2017

Aswali Dam is located near Bordi. It is around 151 KM away from Amboli in Andheri west. 

Aswali Dam

Hansel, who had accompanied me to Shiv Kalin Vihir in Badlapur, joined me on this trip. 

Sunrise on the way to Aswali Dam

We met at Amboli, near my house at 5:20 AM. We immediately headed to our destination, Aswali Dam.

Hansel and Me

As it was early morning, the roads were empty, so Hansel managed to pickup speed. We crossed the Fountain junction without any traffic, which was good.

Can you spot the aeroplane in the sky

We rode on the Mumbai Ahmedabad highway, as the bike gained momentum, it started growing colder. We were wearing warm clothes, but our hands were numb due to the cold. Hansel added that due to the near water bodies and trees, the temperature will always be lower than elsewhere. He was right.

Every time we braked to stretch, it grew cooler.

Tody trees on the way to Aswali Dam

The directions to Aswali Dam are tagged on google maps, follow the map and you will not get lost. We did the same. 

We exited the Mumbai Ahmedabad highway at Talasari, and traveled by a narrow village road to Aswali Dam The roads are in good condition. The journey was picturesque. We passed by Toddy trees, Banyan Trees and water bodies. Life here was so laid back. Everyone has relaxing. How I miss this kind of life in the city.
Toddy wine, created from the Sap of the toddy tree is a alcoholic beverage. We saw sap being collected from the Toddy trees while travelling to Aswali Dam. Some one is going to have a party tonight. 

Sap from the Tody tree

We travelled in and out of Maharashtra into Gujarat a couple of times to reach our destination. How we know, there were police check post. 

Finally around 9 AM, we reached the school, located very close to the Aswali Dam. I quickly asked one of the school teacher for directions to the dam. He immediately showed me the rocky trail that leads to the dam. I inquired about the whereabouts of Bahrot Caves located nearby. He told me that those caves exist, though he has never been up them. He told me that it would take us around 2 to 3 hours to reach the caves from the dam. The dam, we would reach in 30 minutes. He also advised us to take a local with us , if we planned to visit it. As the trek is through a jungle and there is a possibility of us getting lost as the directions are not marked.
Hansel and I decided to skip the caves for the time being, visit the dam and do the caves later. 

The school near Aswali Dam

We walked on the rocky road that leads to the dam. As the road was not motor able, we parked the bike under the shade of a tree and walked it out.

En route, Hansel, heard a couple of ducks, we immediately located them, took a couple of photos and then headed back to the dam.
Finally we reached the dam premises. The view of the dam was just beautiful. The green waters was surrounded by hills covered with thick forests on three sides. It reminded me of my trip to Pelhar Dam near Vasai. Equally beautiful. 

Ducks on the way to the Aswali Dam

There is only one control mechanism for the entire dam. Access to it is denied. We walked on the small muddy path. There were school kids here, I guess they had bunked school to spend sometime at the dam. 

View from Aswali Dam

There was a tiny hole in the dam wall, from where the water was oozing out. like a mini waterfall post the rains. 

Aswali Dam

We parked ourselves in the shade of the trees and had some mouth watering sandwiches prepared by Hansel's wife. 

That's me

Miniature waterfall

I noticed something very unusual here, I noticed a cow, swim or should I say walk in the water with its head held high so that it can breathe. It walked for around 20 minutes in the water to reach land.
Watching the calm waters, greenery around us, was so soothing to my eyes. I wouldn't mind suspending a hammock between two trees and sipping on some ice cold beer. 

Aswali Dam

Aswali Dam

Now that we have visited Aswali Dam, what do we do next, is the question I had in my mind. I started to research on google. But due to the poor internet connectivity we were not getting any signals. We decided to go back to the village located near the school to try our luck there. 

Aswali Dam

Aswali Dam

Near the school we got better connectivity, as compared to the dam, we then decided to do the coastal road-trip starting at Bordi beach and terminating at Dahanu Beach.

Parrots on a Wire

Friday, January 18, 2013

I was sitting near the windowsill, when all of a sudden I noticed these two parrots sitting or should I say balancing themselves on this wire. The wire runs from  12th storey of my building to the 3rd storey of the neighbouring building. Had this amazing snap taken from my Panasonic Lumix TZ 11